One thing that became crystal clear to me early on in the game was that we were controlling which Connecticut players would shoot open three-point shots. They did make three of their baskets from beyond the arc in the first half but those shots were uncontested. Intentionally. I can remember two instances where Turner had the ball far from the basket and waited for a Cardinal to run out and defend her. It looked to me like she was hoping to fake, get around the defender, and get closer in where she could do some damage. But we just held steady, playing tough interior defense, looking at her out there by herself. The message was clear, "Go ahead and shoot that shot. We don't care. It's not your shot. You're not going to beat us that way." Finally, she put up the shot. And in the first half those shots went in.
But I loved it! We were playing smart and going with the numbers. Turner had attempted 16 three-pointers all season, making three. In the game last night she put up 5 attempts and made two. Turner shooting from the perimeter is where you want her to be. She's third on the team in offensive boards. The further from the basket she is, the better. And if she's out there trying to be a different player than normal, well that's the kind of behavior you want to see from an opponent.
Another player we gave a free license to on the perimeter was Swanier. She made 1 out of 5, after attempting only 23 during the rest of the year. And Moore. Another green light. Her two attempts (and no hits) from downtown deserved a hearty thank you from the Cardinal. During the rest of the season she only attempted 5 three-point shots, making one.
The players that we didn't want shooting the ball from downtown were their three best shooters: Strother, Valley, and Thomas. And we defended them aggressively. I don't think any of those three got an open look all night (well, maybe just one). And it showed on the stat sheet. Together they shot 1-10 during the game after going a combined 127-342 during the rest of the year. I'll take 10% versus 37% every day of the week.
The only Connecticut player who was a decent three point shooter during the regular season (in terms of attempts and percentage) and did well in the game was Battle. She over-excelled, making 2 out of 3. I'll have to watch the tape again to see how we defended her.
So an A+ for our perimeter defense (our interior defense was good as well - but that's another topic). We shut down the players we didn't want hurting us from the perimeter. We gave the green light to anyone else. We made it easy for them to play outside their comfort zone by giving them an open shot. It takes tremendous focus and recognition to keep that defense up for an entire game. And it's just excellent, smart basketball. When you couple that with the physical basketball we started playing in the interior, it makes us a deadly team. So if you're playing Stanford and you have a wide open three-pointer you should probably ask yourself, "If I shoot this shot, am I doing exactly what they want me to do?"
